Well, I may have done when it was broadcast last year, and I certainly will hear at least some of it this evening. However, Der Rosenkavalier isn't a favourite opera of mine (actually it isn't even one of my favourite Strauss operas - there are at least eight others that I'd rather see).

I've only seen Fleming twice on stage, once in Rossini some years ago and once last year in La Traviata.

With all the recent research and new editions of Hoffmann, the role of Nicklausse (the Muse) has indeed gotten larger than it used to be. (The Met uses a "mixed" edition, largely the long-standard one but not entirely so.) Giulietta has always been the smallest role of the three "heroines," and remains so. I wouldn't think that anything special had been done to redistribute the roles to flatter this cast. It's just an oddly balanced opera in some ways.

I had planned to see the moviecast but was prevented by the East Coast snowfall. I did hear most of the radio broadcast, and thought that Calleja sounded marvelous, just as when I'd heard him live. The flicker of vibrato impresses me as a colorful and individual (and entirely healthy) part of his vocal color (just as I did with Troyanos).

The Marschallin is right in line with Fleming's roles in the last decade or so -- what the Germans call "youthful-dramatic" (or on the bigger side of "lyric"): Desdemona, Tchaikovsky's Tatiana, Rodelinda, Strauss's Arabella, Russalka. It's true that she has balanced these with roles sometimes sung by lighter voices (Violetta, Thais, etc.), as smart singers will generally try to do.

I saw it, and I must say Fleming surprised me. She was completely believable and in command all the way. On the whole, I liked Christine Schafer's Sophie, but she did have to strain to reach her high notes. Fleming's, on the other hand, were as lovely and as effortless-seeming as you could hope for. Susan Graham...well, I thought she'd be stronger. Or maybe someone was fiddling with the volume controls again.

Now, I know this is sacrilege to say about an opera written for three varieties of soprano, but I thought the best voice on that stage came from Baron Ochs. Kristinn Sigmundsson is a wonderful singer, and I loved every minute he was on the stage. He's a pretty good actor, too.

The one time I saw Rosenkavalier on stage, at the ENO many years ago and I haven't a clue who was in it, Ochs stole the show...partly by comedy, of course, but the fact is Strauss gave that obnoxious man some of the best music in the entire opera.

The Rosenkavalier that I saw at ENO was in 1975, with Anne Evans (Marschallin), Valerie Masterson (Sophie), Josephine Barstow (a soprano Octavian), Eric Shilling (Faninal) and Australian bass-baritone Neil Warren-Smith as Ochs. The conductor was Charles Mackerras.

I heard Acts 1 and 3 of Saturday's Met broadcast. It was OK, but I'm not a great fan of the opera. I really don't like anything in the first Act until Ochs turns up. I do like the start of Act 2, but then find that it sags until the Octavian/Ochs bust-up. And I enjoy most of the third Act, though the stuff after Och's exit is too mushy for my taste.